Leaving Kodak for Ilford paper developer

[Michael R]

In addition to Moersch SE-6 (which is a wonderful developer and the only commercially available formula which can actually make current papers shift substantially to cold/blue-black), a few additional notes for those interested:

-For milder “neutralization”, Moersch SE-3 is also nice

-Moersch sells a developer additive called Finisher Blue. The active ingredient in this is PMT (a powerful anti-foggant). You add small amounts of this to any standard print developer and get any amount of shift you want from neutralization all the way to blue-black. Experiment to taste depending on paper etc. It works wonderfully with warm tone papers such as MGWT. Photographers Formulary used to sell PMT, but it is not currently listed in their online chemicals. I sent them a note about it recently but haven’t heard back. A few years ago I did an extensive series of tests/experiments with PMT and found it to work very well with Ilford papers as well as MCC-110 at the time.

-When using developers such as SE-6, if you use selenium toner you might find you need to adjust your toning but of course this depends on what you want to see, type of paper etc. etc.

[JMO]

Dektol is D-72. To make 1l stock solution:

800ml water at 40-50C. (distilled water may be preferable depending on your water quality). Add each of the following ingredients in this order. Each ingredient should be fully dissolved (by stirring) before adding the next.

3g Metol
45g Sodium sulfite anhydrous
12g Hydroquinone
80g Sodium carbonate monohydrate
2g Potassium bromide

Add cold water to make 1l.

For use, dilute 1+2 with water (1 part stock + 2 parts water)

Gentlemen,

I also checked the MSDSheet for Dektol from Kodak Alaris, and it shows the formula contains the following:

percent
50 - 55 Sodium carbonate, monohydrate (5968-11-6)
30 - 35 Sodium sulphite (7757-83-7)
5 - 10 Hydroquinone (123-31-9)

1-5 Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate (55-55-0) aka "Metol"
1-5 Polyphosphoric acids, sodium salts (68915-31-1)
1-5 Potassium bromide (7758-02-3)
0.1 - < 1 Boric anhydride (1303-86-2)

The ingredient in red font would be something like TSP or tri-sodium phosphate, which is also available from Photographers Formulary.

[Michael R]

That ingredient is a calcium sequestering agent. In this case it is sodium hexametaphosphate aka "calgon".

The last ingredient (boric anhydride) is a sequestering agent which allows for everything to be packaged in one bag and dissolved together. Kodak had several patents on methods for allowing single packaging.

Gentlemen,

I also checked the MSDSheet for Dektol from Kodak Alaris, and it shows the formula contains the following:

percent
50 - 55 Sodium carbonate, monohydrate (5968-11-6)
30 - 35 Sodium sulphite (7757-83-7)
5 - 10 Hydroquinone (123-31-9)

1-5 Bis(4-hydroxy-N-methylanilinium) sulphate (55-55-0) aka "Metol"
1-5 Polyphosphoric acids, sodium salts (68915-31-1)
1-5 Potassium bromide (7758-02-3)
0.1 - < 1 Boric anhydride (1303-86-2)

The ingredient in red font would be something like TSP or tri-sodium phosphate, which is also available from Photographers Formulary.

[Doremus Scudder]

I called the "Formulary" asking what ingredients I needed to mix my own Dektol but because it is proprietary they did not know which ingredients are included.

Fred

Michael has your formula, or use the spoon recipe that I posted earlier. D-72 is super-easy to mix; easier than packaged Dektol, and gives great results. Once you've acquired the stock chemicals and printed a time or two, you'll hit the break-even point and see the savings. Plus, you never have to toss old developer; just mix what you need when you need it.

An aside: The people at the Formulary should have known enough to point you to D-72; I'm surprised at the lack of knowledge (or the subterfuge) on their part...

Doremus